Over the last three seasons of drama series The Last Ship, in the wake of the dreaded “Red Flu” wiping out 80% of the world’s population, the crew of the USS Nathan James have had a simple mission: Find a cure. Stop the virus. Save the world. They thought they accomplished that by the end of season 3, turns out they only got two out of three.
At San Diego Comic-Con this weekend past a panel was held for TNT’s popular TV series, and it was here where the cast and crew revealed what’s coming in season 4. Despite humanity’s numbers being at almost an all-time low, there is a real risk of global famine thanks to the latest evolution of the Red Flu, as executive producer Steven Kane explained:
The virus is no longer affecting human beings. It jumps back a kingdom to where it comes from to plants…basically to all the food crops that people need to survive.
This prompts the Nathan James to set off on a new mission to find a primordial seed immune to the Red Rust, as it’s now called, to try and jumpstart humanity’s crops again with a hardier strain. This mission will be global again, as Kane continued saying that “We go to Greece, Italy, Algeria, Morocco, Spain — it’s fun”. This mission means that The Last Ship will apparently be taking a page out of Homer’s book. No, that Homer of The Simpsons fame (I imagine his book would only have one word: Doh!), but rather the legendary Greek scribe and poet who penned one of the greatest sea tales in history in The Odyssey. Season 4 of The Last Ship is being billed as this show’s version of that epic tome, which is certainly an ambitious plan. Go big or go home.
One person who found a new home at the end of season 3 was Eric Dane’s Tom Chandler. Having battled rogue Russian commanders, religious cults, trigger happy Asian governments and more, losing a love in the process, he gave up his captaincy of the Nathan James and retired with his family to Greece (there’s that Odyssey influence). But as the first trailer below shows, it’s not exactly a completely peaceful retirement. Besides for seemingly being involved in some word Greek fight club (huh?), Chandler will soon need to take up arms again as the world faces peril once more. And it looks like he may even have to deal with Robocop, because that is indeed Peter Weller you see there!
Now I will admit that some of the CG explosions in that trailer look rather dodgy, but for the last three seasons, The Last Ship has consistently delivered some of the best military action on TV and I can’t wait for me.
The Last Ship also stars Adam Baldwin, Bridget Regan, Charles Parnell, Travis Van Winkle, Marissa Neitling, Christina Elmore, Jocko Sims, Bren Foster and Kevin Michael Martin. Twilight alum Jackson Rathbone joins the cast as a new Greek villain – the one seen above ordering Chandler to beat a man a death – who Kane describes as “a really delicious villain” who is “kind of like a Greek mafia guy.”
Season 4 of The Last Ship will kick off in the US on 20 August. Expect it on local screens shortly thereafter.
Last Updated: July 24, 2017
